Join Us In The Effort To Make May 14 National Sports Betting Day

Here at PlayUSA, we take pride in bringing you the best and most up-to-date news about gambling in America. Now, we have something to ask of you. We want you to join us in supporting May 14 to be designated annual National Sports Betting Day.

Why make May 14 National Sports Betting Day?

For those who don’t know, May 14 is a very special day for those who follow sports betting. In a sense, May 14 is sports betting’s day of independence — its very own July 4th.

On May 14, 2018, the US Supreme Court voted 6 – 3 to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Betting Act of 1992, a law more commonly known as PASPA. PASPA had been the decades-old ban on sports betting throughout the vast majority of these United States.

Even more impressively, 38 states have introduced sports betting legislation over the past year. Seven of them are drawing very near to launching their first sports betting operations.

Where sports betting has expanded, innovation has followed

Of course, the mere act of betting expansion is not the only outcome of PASPA’s dismissal. The diaspora of sports betting into new markets has created new challenges for operators, and consequently, new innovations–particularly in online sports betting.

For instance, at various sites, New Jersey players can wager on exceptionally granular events. Online sportsbooks can capture microevents like the scorer of the next point, the recipient of the next pass, or the result of the next play as wagerable events.

Another innovation to come to the US in the past year has been the advent of live ticket systems. In essence, these features allow players to cash out their open tickets prior to the completion of the sporting event. The player can guard against last-second collapses or uncertain wagers, and operators enjoy a reduced payout potential.

None of those innovations would be possible if not for the historic events on May 14, 2018. As such, we believe that the day deserves proper recognition.

Who is doing the designation?

National Day Calendar is an international organization that helps companies, nonprofit organizations, and other interested parties properly commemorate important milestones in their industries and lives. National Day Calendar tracks nearly 1,500 special occasions throughout the year and routinely informs news broadcasts and other media outlets.

Receiving this recognition from National Day Calendar does not carry the force of a US Congress recognition, per se, but it would be a highly-public way to show that this day was a major event in history, at least in our corner of the world.

National Sports Betting Day could very well be real by May 14, 2020. Support the day then by placing a bet at your local sportsbook (where legal), snap any kind of related picture–perhaps the team you bet on–and hashtag #NationalSportsBettingDay on social media.

Bart Shirley is a writer and poker player from Houston, Texas. Bart writes about the NJ online casino industry and US online poker. He has a master's degree in business administration from Texas Christian University and a degree in English from Texas A&M.